Third party leaves Slovenia’s ruling coalition

A third junior party has left Slovenia’s ruling coalition just two days ahead of a vote of confidence in Prime Minister Janez Janša and his centre-right government.

The vote in Parliament on Wednesday (27 February) could pave the way for Alenka Bratušek, the interim leader of Positive Slovenia (PS) to form a government. The PS – then led by Zoran Janković, the mayor of the capital Ljubljana – had tried, and failed, to form a government following an election in December 2011 which had made it the largest party in parliament.

Even after today’s defection from the ruling coalition of the Slovenian People’s Party (SLS), it is unclear whether the opposition has enough votes in parliament to form a stable government.

Failure to form a new governing coalition this time around would most likely lead to an early election, a step that most political parties want to avoid out of fear that the small eurozone economy could be forced to seek a bail-out.

The ruling coalition began crumbling in January following the publication of an official report by an anti-corruption commission suggesting that Janša was unable to explain more than €210,000 in assets. The report made a similar claim about €2.4 million held by Janković, the leader of the PS.

Also today, it emerged that the country’s supreme court had rejected Janša’s request that the corruption report should be kept secret.